


Boring Adult Stuff

by writingonpostcards



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Moving In Together, Sexual References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-19 18:40:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19362349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingonpostcards/pseuds/writingonpostcards
Summary: Kent and Jeff move into their apartment together.For all that he's about to open a simple cardboard box, Jeff starts feeling the ceremony of it too. Yes, it’s a box, but it’s a box oftheirstuff thatthey’reunpacking fortheirapartment.





	Boring Adult Stuff

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lukutoukka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukutoukka/gifts).



Kent pushes the door open with his foot and walks backwards into the hallway. Jeff follows him through, craning his neck to see over the top of his box.

“I am so glad we did all the furniture shit before this weekend,” Kent groans, dropping his cardboard box a few steps into the foyer. 

Jeff clears his throat.

“What?” Kent asks, lifting the cap off his head to shove his hair back into place beneath it.

Jeff turns slightly so he can look between Kent and the box he’s just dropped.

“It’s only towels." Kent rolls his eyes. "I didn’t break anything.”

“It’s more that it’s in the middle of the corridor,” Jeff replies.

“My arms were sore.” Kent pouts and shakes his arms like a swimmer before a race. Jeff wants to be more annoyed than he is, but this big bubble of warmth expands and then bursts inside him so he has to smile to let some of it out.

He drops his own box and steps between it and Kent's to get to his boyfriend.

“I’m sorry about your arms, babe,” Jeff says, rubbing his palms up and down Kent’s arms.

Kent smiles. “Thanks.”

Jeff gives him a quick kiss then retrieves Kent's box from the floor for him.

“How about you start unpacking instead?”

“I can’t start without you,” Kent admonishes, following Jeff down the corridor and into the bathroom, where Jeff drops the box of towels in the corner.

“Okay. I’ve just got to move that other box from the hallway and then we can start.”

Kent grabs Jeff on his way out and pulls him close.

“Hey,” Kent whispers to Jeff. “We’re moving into our apartment today.”

The bubble of warmth appears again. Jeff smiles and wraps his arms around Kent. “That we are.”

-

Kent swivels the box on the counter top in the kitchen. 'First box' is written on its side.

"First box," Kent says, patting it with ceremony.

"I have a feeling it's going to be anticlimactic," Jeff tries to warn Kent.

"Impossible. It’s me,” Kent announces with dramatic flare and a smirk. “And I gotta document it anyway." Kent pulls out his phone.

Jeff blocks the screen with his hands. "Hey, we agreed no internet until we've unpacked at least half this stuff."

"I'm just taking a plain old photo. See?" Kent pulls his phone from under Jeff's hand and flips it around. 

"Okay. Continue." Jeff stands beside Kent and wraps an arm around his waist. 

“I'll post it later,” Kent reassures him.

“We need to set up the wifi modem anyway,” Jeff reminds Kent, kissing his cheek. “But you're not taking a photo of every single box before we unpack it, ‘kay." 

Kent turns to catch Jeff’s lips with his own. "I better make this count then. Go pretend to open the box."

Jeff laughs. "Why don't I just actually open it."

"Ugh. Fine."

Jeff squeezes Kent before stepping over to the ‘first box’ box. "Ready?"

Kent gives him a thumbs up.

"Are you sure?" Jeff asks, trying to make this into something for Kent.

"Yes."

"Are you really sure?" For all that he's about to open a simple cardboard box, Jeff starts feeling the ceremony of it too. Yes, it’s a box, but it’s a box of _their_ stuff that _they’re_ unpacking for _their_ apartment. 

"Yes," Kent repeats.

"Are you really, _really_ sure?"

"Jeff!" Kent says while laughing. "Open the fucking box, will ya?"

Jeff peels the tape off and flips the lid open. "Ta da!" He does jazz hands and everything for Kent’s photo.

Kent takes one final photo before pocketing his phone and joining Jeff. They unpack the random assortment of items; a small selection of cutlery, crockery and glasses. 

"Lived up to expectations?" Jeff asks when it's empty.

"Ah..." Kent picks up the empty box and spins it between his hands. 

"Well. It's hard to get past the reality of unpacking a bunch of stuff," Jeff says. "Do you think this is what it's like to work in retail? My sister is always complaining about unpacking deliveries."

"Yeah, no wonder. And…” Kent throws the empty box up, between them, waiting to catch it before adding, “They don't even get to make forts with the empty boxes when they're done."

Kent unleashes the pout and pleading eyes on Jeff. Even after two years of dating it retains its effectiveness.

Jeff looks heavenward and grabs the box off Kent.

"We can't get distracted," he tells Kent and himself at the same time. "We need to get the bulk of this done this weekend."

"But what if—"

Jeff tucks the box under one arm and presses his fingers to Kent's lips.

"But...We can throw all the boxes in the guest room for now and once we're properly unpacked we can build the fort. Deal?"

Kent grins beneath his fingers.

-

There's a 'first box #2' with a few cooking utensils and another 'first box #3' which has their Bluetooth speaker. Kent plugs it in and connects his phone, pulling up the moving in playlist they'd spent a weekend creating back when they had signed the lease on the apartment. Their combined music taste is so far reaching they have enough music on there to last half a week.

Once the essentials are done they move down through Jeff's list of priorities. Master bedroom and ensuite next.

Jeff lets Kent do the bathroom while he starts on the bedroom, knowing his boyfriend owns the majority of their bathroom products. Jeff's 90% confident he could group things together properly but no point testing that theory today when there's already a high potential for tension.

Kent has the speaker in the bathroom with him and their moving in playlist bounces off all the tiles and mirrors, making every song creepy.

"Done!” Kent announces first, bracing himself with two hands in the doorway and leaning forward into the bedroom. He’s taken his cap off but his hair hasn't lost the kinks from wearing it yet.

Jeff diverts from his path to the walk-in-wardrobe and swings by Kent to give him a  kiss and poke his head into the bathroom to take a look. “Looks awesome, babe,” he says honestly. “It’s so organised and neat.”

Kent flushes. “Thanks. Give me a week though.”

Jeff laughs. “Oh, I know.”

Kent kicks Jeff in the shins softly but Jeff fake tumbles to the floor and groans in exaggerated pain. Kent doesn't bother playing along, just laughs and pulls the coathangers from Jeff’s arms to finish his task of hanging them on the racks in the closet, ready for their jackets and suits.

Jeff grabs the speaker and Kent’s phone from the bathroom and moves them into the bedroom. The music is much nicer in the carpeted room.

Kent comes dancing out of the closet over to Jeff and pulls the alarm clock from his hands to throw is on the bed.

“Dance break.”

Kent turns the music up and starts spinning and jumping and thrusting his hips in an uncoordinated manner, but still in time with the music.

Jeff picks the clock up from the bed to finish plugging it is.

“Dance break,” Kent repeats.

“But—”

Kent puts his lips on Jeff’s and swallows his arguments. 

“ _Break_.” He relieves Jeff of the clock again and grabs his hands, dropping them onto his waist and then wrapping his own around Jeff’s shoulders.

It’s hard to say no seeing the happiness in Kent’s eyes. Jeff forgets about the list of rooms still to unpack and dances with his boyfriend.

-

Once they’re danced out, after a water and snack break, and after the clock has finally been plugged into the wall, Jeff and Kent finish unpacking their clothes.

“We're gonna test the shower out later right?" Kent asks Jeff, hanging his favourite game day suit on a hanger

"Uh, yeah?" Jeff clips a pair of slacks onto a hanger and adds it alongside the matching jacket. "I hope you're planning on showering while we live here."

"No. I mean." Kent slips in between Jeff and the clothes rack and wraps his fingers through Jeff's belt loops to pull their hips together. "Are we going to _test out the shower_ later."

“Define later,” Jeff replies, slipping his hands into Kent’s back pockets.

“Tonight?” Kent suggests.

Jeff laughs. “Babe.”

Kent obviously takes it as a refusal because he brings back the pout and immediately complains, "First no wifi and now no sex?"

"I didn't say no sex.” Jeff squeezes Kent’s ass. “If I'm not too tired, and you're not too tired, it's not often I'll say no to you. Which you know already,” Jeff points out, pressing a quick kiss to Kent’s forehead.

"Know and love," Kent adds.

"But from memory of all the times I’ve moved before…” Jeff trails off and shrugs, pulling his hands from Kent’s pockets. “I'm just saying, it’s probably not going to happen tonight."

Kent’s still pouting. Jeff leans in and kisses him and eventually the pout turns to a smile.

-

"We still doing takeaway for dinner?" Jeff yells down the hall to Kent, collapsing a box to add to their collection in the guest bedroom.

"Sounds good," Kent yells back.

The master bedroom and ensuite have been unpacked, as well as the guest bedroom (before too many empty boxes went in there) and main bathroom. Jeff had set up the wifi modem as a surprise while Kent was showering. He’s expecting to find his boyfriend on the couch finally posting the photos from today.

Jeff flicks the stanley knife closed and brings it with him into the kitchen to throw into their gadgets draw that’s currently empty.

Kent’s hair is still a little damp from the shower, Jeff notices when he sits next to him on the couch. "Get, like, double of our usual?” Kent requests. “I'm so hungry."

"Sure thing."

Jeff picks a place at random from their new area, hoping the reviews are accurate. He's going to miss the Thai restaurant around the corner from his old place, but these past weeks he's been fantasising about all the new traditions and favorite places he and Kent area going to find here and it makes it easier to let those kinds of things go.

-

After dinner, the tiredness sets in. 

"I’m calling it,” Kent says, stretching his legs out in front of him, hand resting on his stomach. There’s still a good third of the food they ordered sitting uneaten on the table but that just means they can do leftovers for breakfast and not have to bother with going out to grab something in the morning. They’d made sure to pack the coffee things in one of the first boxes though, which is really more important in Jeff’s opinion.

"Everything else is a tomorrow problem,” Kent declares dramatically. “I don't think I can even move right now."

"I feel you," Jeff agrees.

They sit around the table for a few minutes without moving. Jeff stares at the food and wishes it would pack itself away and into the fridge. It does not.

Jeff collapses into bed that night. He didn't manage to unpack the box with his sleepwear in it—for some reason, maybe one starting with ‘K’ and ending with ‘ent’, that box wasn’t with all the others labelled ‘master bedroom’—so he goes without. Thankfully the weather is mild at the moment, and their apartment is pretty well insulated. The few other times he's gone to bed naked, Kent's taken quick advantage of the situation. It's a mark of their exhaustion that Kent doesn't even give him a come-hither look.

"You remember that time we played the Falconers,” Kent says once the lights are off, his voice slow and deep, “and I rushed the goal and ended up at the bottom of a scramble?"

"Mm-hm. I remember."

"Remember how much I complained about how sore I was for days after?"

Jeff rolls onto his side to look at Kent. " _Vividly_." 

Kent and Jeff had been living together at the time, back before they got together. 

Kent turns his head to look at Jeff. "My body feels worse right now."

Jeff scooches closer to Kent, trying to find his hand beneath the sheets. "Maybe we should have accepted some of the guys' offers to help us."

Kent rolls over too and clasps their hands together easily. "Yeah. Probably. But I kind of…” Kent takes a moment, eyes dropping from Jeff’s. Jeff squeezes his hand and waits. 

“I like that it's just us moving in together,” Kent says finally, looking up to smile at Jeff. “Making it our home."

The sentiment is ruined slightly by Kent yawning half way through. Jeff smiles and pushes forwards to kiss Kent's jaw.

"I like it too."

Kent lets the sappiness hang for a few seconds before pushing through it in the way Jeff knows to expect and love.

“I can’t believe you were right.”

“About?” Jeff asks.

“You're naked _right next to me_ and I'm so tired my body feels like it's being magnetised to this mattress."

Jeff laughs at the anguish in Kent's voice. "I know."

"I just want to celebrate this moment with you."

"We don't have to celebrate with sex."

"But christening the house is one of the domestic perks I was looking forward to."

"You can still look forward to it. Think of it as really, really drawn out foreplay."

Kent groans.

"See. Working already."

Kent seems to have the energy to move his arm at least because Jeff finds himself with Kent's hand on his face. He presses kisses to it until Kent moves it away, and falls to sleep quickly after that, facing his boyfriend with their hands still laced together.

-

The Thai food is not as good the next morning, but the coffee is fantastic. Jeff has two cups.

“I remember back when we were rookies,” Jeff reminisces to Kent. “Man, we’d eat take out every meal for a week straight and not care.”

“We were young,” Kent bemones, eyeing his fork of re-heated noodles glumly before shoving them into his mouth.

“Hey. We’re still young.”

“Tell that to my aching back.” Kent stretches for effect.

“That’s just because we’ve spent the past day carrying boxes and unpacking things.”

“Thanks, Jeff.” Kent scoops up another forkful of noodles. "This afternoon, I'm going to become the boring adult my age says I should be and go buy groceries. I'm already fantasising about fresh fruit."

"You want company?" Jeff offers.

"Nah. I'll be fine. I'll just get some basics and we can order the rest online to get delivered."

Jeff smiles at Kent. "You're really excelling at this boring adult stuff, babe."

-

True to his word, Kent goes out to get groceries, but straight after breakfast when he realises he’s going to be eating leftovers for lunch again if he waits.

Jeff starts unpacking the boxes of books for the two shelves in the main living room. Everything got out of order when he and Kent packed the books into boxes so he has to re-alphabetise and make sure the genres aren't mixed up.  He knows he’s pedantic about it, and he secretly thinks that’s another reason Kent’s gone out this morning, after Jeff told him he wanted to do the bookshelves.

The music he was streaming from his phone drops out for a second as a text message comes through. Jeff ignores it, but then a second and third message follow so he leaves the books unfinished to check.

**_Kent_ **

_You listening to music? Been knocking at front door._

_Let me in?_

_My key is… Somewhere_

Jeff jogs down the corridor to their front door and opens it for Kent.

"You done already?" Jeff grabs a bag off Kent and shuts the door behind him.

“It’s been like, an hour and a half,” Kent tells Jeff, leading them into the kitchen and dropping bags onto the counter.

“Oh shit. Really?” Jeff drops his one bag and checks the time on the microwave. Kent’s right. 

“You and your books,” Kent says fondly, starting to unpack the groceries.

Jeff pulls the cold items from the bags to get them into the fridge. “What happened to your key then?” he asks Kent.

“I think I left it here,” Kent guesses. “Hey, where do you want these to go?” He holds up two packs of pasta.

“Uh...No idea? Huh.”

Jeff opens the walk in pantry which is completely bare.

“You don’t have a system already worked out?” Kent asks, following him in.

The space is not designed for two professional-hockey-playing-sized humans to occupy.

“Cosy,” Kent comments.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Jeff warns, grabbing the pasta off Kent and putting them on a shelf at eye-level. 

Kent steps up and presses his body along Jeff’s back. “Too late.” Kent whispers into his ear, before slipping his hands into Jeff’s front pockets.

Jeff shivers. “This is not helpful for unpacking the groceries.” His voice is rougher than he’d like it to be.

Kent laughs. “Really? I think we could give it a go like this.”

Keeping himself at Jeff’s back, Kent turns them around and uses his body to push Jeff back toward the grocery bags. It goes as well as Jeff expected, which is to say, not at all. They don’t make it back to the pantry before Jeff’s laughing so much his eyes water.

“You’re so ridiculous, babe,” Jeff gasps, trying to catch his breath.

Kent smiles happily at him. “Yeah, but you love it.”

“Fuck. I really, really do.” Jeff pulls Kent in for a kiss even though he’s still laughing.

-

After the groceries are unpacked, Kent helps Jeff with his bookshelf. Jeff lays the books out in order on the floor and Kent lifts them and slots them onto the shelves. When that’s done, they move on to a box of miscellaneous items to be put on display; photo frames and hockey memorabilia and other little trinkets.

Kent positions and repositions the photo frames on the shelf while Jeff takes out random paper weights and souvenirs from travels and a pair of his shoes that he doesn’t remember putting in this box.

The box is almost empty when he jams his fingers against something hard. He pulls it from the box and looks down at his palm to the round disk. He flips it over to see his own signature on the puck.

He holds it up and looks over to Kent, who’s still rearranging pictures on the bookshelf. Jeff walks over to him.

“Hey,” he says softly.

Kent spins around and Jeff leans in and kisses him. He feels Kent lean back against the bookshelf as Jeff continues to hold their kiss.

Jeff breaks the kiss when he has to breathe. He holds the puck up between them. Kent looks down at in and bites his lip, cheeks going blotchy with pink.

Jeff looks at the puck and his signature scrawled on it, addressed to Kent. He remembers vividly the emotions of that night, feeling so high. His first game as Alternate Captain, his first hat trick of the season, thinking it was so funny and surreal to sign a puck for his captain. But Kent had asked.

Jeff clears his throat. “Is this from the night—”

“I realised I loved you,” Kent whispers.

“You’re such a romantic,” Jeff tells Kent, smiling, the bubble of warmth back inside of him.

 

**EPILOGUE**

A few weeks later, when there are no more boxes left to unpack, and when the everyday clutter of discarded clothing, phone chargers and half-read newspapers have taken up residence, Kent and Jeff sit side by side on the couch binging their way through a new TV show. Jeff gets tired early in the evenings, body not used to their start of season training schedule yet. He's half asleep with his head on Kent's left shoulder when Kent moves suddenly.

Jeff snaps awake, watching Kent as he pushes to the front of the couch and pauses the show.

"You good, babe?" Jeff asks.

“Yes. Hang on, I’m just…" Kent lifts a palm up and moves it vaguely in an arc in front of him. Jeff watches with eyebrows raised.

"I think…" Kent turns to Jeff and picks up his hand. "I think we just did it," Kent whispers to him.

“Did what?” Jeff asks, bringing his free hand to rub up and down Kent's back. He wasn't aware they'd been doing anything of note.

Kent smiles at Jeff and his eyes turn glossy with tears. Jeff shuffles closer to Kent.

“Made this our home,” Kent says.

Jeff's stomach swoops so that he had a strange sensation of free falling.

" _Kent_ ," he says softly, then he doesn't know what else to add so he leans forward and gives Kent the softest kiss he can manage.

"Kent," he repeats when he pulls back.

Kent takes Jeff's face in his hands and kisses him again, harsh with excitement, and smiling so much it’s awkward.

Kent pulls back eventually, but not before he's managed to make a mess of Jeff's hair. "Sorry. You can go back to sleep now," Kent tells him, removing his hands from Jeff.

Jeff shakes his head. "Nuh-uh." He presses his forehead against Kent's. "I'm not tired after that kiss."

"Really?" Kent asks in a whisper.

"Mm-hm," Jeff confirms. "In fact, I’m thinking...Shall we christen our home properly?"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta, Silvia. I have so much respect for you and your skills.
> 
>  
> 
> [Catch all the Kent Parson Birthday Bash fics here.](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/KPBB19)
> 
>  
> 
> Leave me a comment and I'll be sure to reply! Incoherent reactionary thoughts are as appreciated as any :)
> 
>  
> 
> [If you liked this, find more of my writing on tumblr.](http://17piesinseptember.tumblr.com/tagged/mine)


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